Tortellini

The stuffed pasta in Italy presents different formats that vary from region to region, from area to area. So in Parma, for example, “tortellini” are called “anolini” and “ravioli” are called “Bologna’s tortellini”, while the “Bologna’s tortelli” are called “cappelletti” in Ferrara and “agnolini” in Mantova. The round or square Piemonte’s agnolotti, out of his land, takes a variety of names: ravioli, tortellini and ravioli, and so on.

Tortellini: the name of tortellini (turtlén in Bologna, turtlein in Modena) is derived from the diminutive of tortello, (small cake in Italian). It is said that an unspecified year of the thirteenth century a beautiful Marquise who fell from a carriage drawn by four horsescame came to an inn in Castelfranco Emilia, on the border between the two cities of Bologna and Modena. The innkeeper went into the room with the lady, so that she could cool off and rest: attracted by such beauty, he peepholed the woman through the keyhole … and he was struck by her navel. When it came time to make dinner, the skilled chefs began working the dough, creating pieces of dough in the shape suggested that the image he had seen earlier. Not knowing what to do with those bits of dough, he filled them with meat. He came out a new delicacy, inspired by this noble navel. When served this dish to the lady, he received the compliments and asked who was going the merit of such goodness, the innkeeper replied, blushing: “To worship.”Thus were born the famous tortellini. The real tortellini was filed December 7, 1974, by the “Brotherhood of Tortellino Learned” at the Chamber of Commerce of Bologna.